Gardner
Dozois Mammoth Book of Science Fiction
series, sometimes falling under different guises, is perhaps the most staid of
the ‘best of’ anthologies. Thirty-one
anthologies published as of 2014, each containing in excess of thirty stories,
a significant backlog of superlative material has accumulated since 1984. Thinking to create an all-star cast of
stories from that backlog, in 2005 Dozois edited The Best of the Best: 20
Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction. With no room for the novellas,
a companion volume The Best of the
Best Volume 2: 20 Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels (aka The
Mammoth Book of Best Short SF Novels)
was published in 2007, and is the subject of this review.
And the
anthology is something resembling the best of the best. Most of the authors well known (and those
that are not are deserving of more attention), the anthology does capture some
of the most interesting stories of the past few decades. Without the pressure of only a year to make a
selection, rather decades, the degree to which each story has held a place in
Dozois’ mind, and by extension the field’s, allows for cherrypicking. While I would have compiled a different list
than Dozois, I cannot deny that each of the stories picked (save one) are at
least worthy of being in such a volume, and represent the field well. If there is any downside to the anthology, it
would be that longtime readers of science fiction in novella form will probably
already have read many, if not most of the stories. But enough gibble gabble, here is the brief
breakdown of each. (FYI—all of the
stories, at one time or another, have been reviewed independently on this blog.
Therefore it’s possible to click on the link within each synopsis to get more
in-depth information.)
The Best of the Best Volume 2: 20 Years of the
Best Short Science Fiction Novels opens with “Beggars in Spain” by Nancy
Kress. Gene therapy available, children
can now be bred not to need sleep, and in the early going the Camden family
decide to have one such child. Leisha
born nine months later, her life begins normally, but the older she gets, the
more differences separate her from children her age. The extra time conscious
put to good use, she excels at school, becoming far more intelligent than her
classmates. But Leisha is just one
‘sleepless’ child. There are
others. The number of super-intelligent
children continually growing, problems arise, and eventually societal backlash,
which puts Leisha and her friends at risk.
While ‘sleepless’ is a neat idea, it is barely unpacked in the novella,
and the manner in which it is unpacked is not entirely convincing. (Olaf Stapledon’s Odd John is a more credible exploration of the same topic.) The social reaction, as well as commentary on
American culture is, however.
“Forgiveness
Day” by Ursula Le Guin is a story set in Le Guin’s Hainish universe, and also
included in her collection Four Ways to Forgiveness. Sticking with the motif of the Hainish books,
the novella is the story of a young woman from the Ekumen, named Solly, sent to
a feudal country as an envoy. Assigned a
cultural attaché and bodyguard by the locals, it isn’t long before she is drawn
into the ongoing civil war between the aristocracy and their slaves. Though well written, the story remains a
fairy tale of social revolutionary proportions.
Le Guin’s feminist themes are obviously situated, which gives the story
notice, but that the ending descends into mainstream sentiments detracts from
potential impact.
“Griffin’s
Egg” by Michael Swanwick is the story of the moon dog Gunther Weil, a man
working on Earth’s biggest satellite to escape the political turmoil
below. But when the trouble moves lunar
side, there is no escape, and Weil is drawn into the affair. Not with guns or lasers, the trouble is
rooted in an act of sabotage. A bizarre,
zombie-like effect descending on the moon stations and their inhabitants, he
and his friends are forced to bring normalcy to the scene while staying
alive. While not themost profound or
Swanwick’s best work, it remains fully readable on a line by line basis, the
plot escalating nicely.
With “Mr.Boy”
by James Patrick Kelly, the anthology starts to get meaty. The story of a
twenty-five year old man stunting his growth to maintain the body of a twelve
year old boy, Mr. Boy and his rich friends romp through the city careless to
the realities of life their money allows for. But when an assistant steals a bit of murder
porn on his behalf, Mr. Boy’s gaudy life begins to unravel. Filled with vivid description and scenes
directly and indirectly commenting on the here and now, choosing one half of
his name over the other proves easy for Mr. Boy by the end of the story.
Perhaps
the best story in the anthology—indeed one of the best novellas the past
several decades—is Ian R. Macleod’s “New Light on the Drake Equation.” The plot is simple: an entrepreneurial
astronomer drinks his life away in the French Alps beside his massive antennae
array awaiting alien contact. It’s thus
at the human level that the flower of story blooms. Macleod, as seems so easy for him, captures
the astronomer’s personality perfectly as he reflects back on his life and
faces the challenges of age and disappointment.
Simply a beautifully written story with fully human themes.
“Oceanic”
by Greg Egan is religious commentary/coming-of-age story, as told through the
eyes of a young man living on an ocean world.
The orthodox belief of the planet’s inhabitants drummed into his brain
throughout life, it’s only as Martin gets older that he begins questioning its
principles, particularly as the results of his scientific work in the oceans
become more relative to theology. As is
typical with Egan, the prose—and agenda—are direct. That being said, the coming-of-age portion of
the story, including the details of setting, are some of the more ‘standard’
science fiction Egan has produced (no entrance exam required), providing color
for an author known for his monochrome.
“Outnumbering
the Dead” by Frederik Pohl is the story of Rafiel, a popular song-and-dance
actor in futuristic America. Exiting one
of his rejuvenation treatments at the outset of the story, he knows the effort
is only a temporary solution. Unlike his
fellow actors, groupies, and the overwhelming majority of people, by some
physical fault the immortality treatments have failed, and he is doomed to die
while others live on. The fate affecting
his relationships, his heart still hurts from the breakup of the doctor who
diagnosed his situation, took pity and became his girlfriend, and then dumped
him when she was unable to handle the idea she would outlive him. A character study, Pohl’s prose shines as the
reader lives with a doomed actor’s last days and months.
Sticking
with the immortality theme, “Sailing to Byzantium” by Robert Silverberg is the
story of another man surrounded by immortality. Charles Phillips, however, is
among the ‘lucky’ ones, and it is his partner who is slowly dying. Set in the far, far future, Earth has only
five cities at a time, one torn down as another is built as a playground for
post-humanity. Along with being an
exploration of Earth’s former urban greats, the story is also an individual
exploration of dealing with death and mortality, all with an eye to the
future. Written in Silverberg’s forever
smooth prose, the story is compelling.
“Surfacing”
by Walter Jon Williams is a dark, personal story of a man, named Anthony, dealing
with a troubled youth through isolation and drink. A researcher on an ocean world, he spends his
days communing with humpbacks, hoping to learn the language of a mysterious
species living at the ocean’s bottom.
His solitude interrupted by a female scientist one day, the surprises
she has in tow—including to herself—shift Anthony’s perspective in ways he’d
never imagined. Ragged prose for an
emotionally stormy story, Williams’ tells a strong tale of personal redemption
that uses symbolism nicely.
An alien
meteorite landing near her village and spreading a strange crystalline
substance across the land meters per day, “Tendeleo’s Story” by Ian McDonald is
the story of a teenage African girl dealing with not only the personal trauma
of having her home engulfed by the mysterious entity, but also the social chaos
which erupts as she, her family, and her neighbors are brought to a refugee
camp on the outskirts of Nairobi. Having
to take matters into her own hands, Tendeleo must sacrifice things she holds dear
to come to an understanding of her situation.
But it pays off. The result a new
perspective on the world, the alien growth comes into a new light, and so too
does Africa. Though part of McDonald’s
ongoing Chaga series, it’s not
necessary to have read the novels before reading the novella.
“The Cost
to be Wise” by Maureen McHugh is a very Le Guin-esque story of a small Arctic
community dealing with a band of raiders who come storming into their village
one day demanding food and drink.
Cultural tensions running high, Janna and her family are caught in a
situation they can’t avoid, seeking not only a way out, but just simpy to stay
alive. They find peace, but not without
heartache. A simple but affective (and
effective) story, lovers of Le Guin will love this story as well.
“The
Hemingway Hoax” by Joe Haldeman starts on a realist note, but slowly
accelerates into the abstract. The story
of a man who plots to pass off a fake of the infamous lost Hemingway
manuscript, he soon finds time travel, alternate worlds, and other strangeness
have an effect on his ruse in ways he’d never thought. Seeming personally relevant for Haldeman, the
story twists and turns, at times confusingly, but where it arrives, will have the
reader in surprise.
“Turquoise
Days” by Alastair Reynolds is the story of two sisters doing research on the
ocean planet Turquoise. When a patch of
life on the surface starts following their research vessel one day, the sisters
decide to take a swim to investigate.
Only one returning alive, she goes on to head a massive research
project, and in the process becomes subsumed in a larger conspiracy. The story pushing all of the ‘correct’
planetary drama buttons, the buttons it does not push (for example, plot
coherency, credible escalation, story structure, etc.) make me question how it
came to be in the anthology, let alone be the exclamation point. Unlike the other stories, it clings much
closer to a pulp ideology, and given the overall cheesiness, undermines any
humanism it might have possessed. Those with less exacting critieria may think
otherwise, however…
In the
end, The Best of the Best Volume 2: 20
Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels is an overview of Gardner
Dozois’ choice for best novellas published in his thirty years as editor of
‘best of’ science fiction anthologies.
Many of the stories are from authors’ established universes, but none
require a familiarity to enjoy. There
are some common threads to the stories, for example, the haves vs. the have
nots, water worlds, immortality, inter-alien cultural relations, character
explorations, and so forth, and for that the selection is very varied, from
style to gender, mode to sub-genre perspectives. With more than twenty years of stories to
sift through, time proves an effective milieu from which to select the best of
the best.
All
novellas published between 1985 and 2002, the following is the collection’s
table of contents. (According to isfdb, a reprinting changed the order of the
stories. That below is based on the original.):
Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
Forgiveness Day by Ursula K. Le Guin
Griffin's Egg by Michael Swanwick
Mr. Boy by
James Patrick Kelly
New Light on the Drake Equation by Ian R. MacLeod
Oceanic by
Greg Egan
Outnumbering the Dead by Frederik Pohl
Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg
Surfacing
by Walter Jon Williams
Tendeléo's Story by Ian McDonald
The Cost to Be Wise by Maureen F. McHugh
The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman
Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds
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